The invention relates to a device for effecting the positionally accurate conveyance of flat articles to be sorted to an input device for a sorting conveyor.
This type of device is usually used in a sorting conveyor for post automation, such as that described for example in European Patent Application EP 827 786 A1. Usually this sorting conveyor has what are known as feed devices which feed the flat articles to be sorted into pockets in a circulating conveyor system. From these pockets the flat articles to be sorted are emptied out into the physical destination points to be assigned to them in each case and can then be conveyed to their intended destination.
The sorting of flat articles to be sorted is comparatively demanding to the extent that the dimensions and handling characteristics of flat goods to be sorted vary within wide constraints. On the one hand, from the format standpoint alone, an almost unlimited plurality of different dimensions exist in the width, height and thickness of the articles. Furthermore a very wide range of packaging and stiffness of flat articles for sorting is encountered, the opposite ends of which are represented by rather hard, stiff cardboard envelopes and by rather soft brochures and periodicals packed in foil. A particular problem is posed here by what are known as bulk mailings, which as a rule contain promotional materials and often simply consist of a collection of loose sheets with additional advertising inserts which project beyond the dimensions of the other sheets.
Usually these types of bulk mailings, but also other flat articles to be sorted are placed in horizontally supported stacks in the conveyor unit mentioned above and must be removed from this stack individually, which in itself is already a technically very challenging task. To enable these flat articles for sorting, which are as a rule in a horizontal position, to be fed by a feed device into the circulating sorting conveyor, these articles need to be moved into a vertical position. This raising into an upright position however in its turn makes it necessary for the articles to be sorted to be very accurately positioned before being fed to the device for raising the articles into an upright position. Another complicating factor here is that it is precisely the less rigid and less homogeneous per se articles to be sorted, e.g. the bulk mailings mentioned above, that are difficult to handle and thus cannot be fed automatically as a rule, but must be positioned manually from an input station onto the feed device, which represents a significant cost factor.